


Following in My Brother's Footsteps

by JetGirl1832, tomatopudding



Series: The Hamilton Family Album [86]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Brothers, GSA, Gen, Siblings, lgbtqia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 19:11:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12688452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JetGirl1832/pseuds/JetGirl1832, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomatopudding/pseuds/tomatopudding
Summary: Sometimes brothers need to sit down and chat too. Especially when it turns out they have a few things in common.





	Following in My Brother's Footsteps

It didn't matter how old he got, AJ would always love coming around to his parents house for dinner. Sure, his husband was an absolutely amazing chef, but every so often he just needed a good dose of his mother's home cooking.

And it wasn't like his parents minded either, with no other ties to DC there was not much keeping them there anymore so now nearly everyone had relocated back to New York City.

It was true that AJ would miss the old house in DC, but it was worth it to have the family close by. 

AJ could hear the noise from inside the apartment even from right outside the door. It was amazing how much noise his two youngest siblings could make all by themselves.

It nearly rivaled the daily chaos that AJ had grown up with when he, Philip, Angie, and Jamie were younger. AJ pressed the buzzer and was greeted by his younger sister Lizzie's voice.

"Who is it?"

"Santa Clause," AJ replied, "Have you been a good little girl this year?"

"Better than last year," Lizzie shot back.

"Keep it up and you finally might get more than a lump of coal," AJ teased.

He then heard his mother's voice, "Lizzie stop messing with the intercom and let your brother in."

Lizzie had obviously obeyed because the next thing AJ heard was the loud buzz of the door unlocking.

AJ chuckled as he went to the door and as he was about to knock it was opened by his mother.

"Hi Mom," AJ replied leaning in for a hug.

"Alone today?" Eliza asked, kissing AJ on the cheek. 

"Yup," answered AJ, "Eli's visiting his grandmother. We had to move her into an assisted living facility a couple weeks ago and she's having some trouble settling in."

Eliza squeezed his shoulder, "Well then I'll make sure to send you back with some leftovers."

"He'll appreciate that," agreed AJ, "I'd offer to help out, but you know I'm terrible in the kitchen."

Eliza chuckled, "Of course. You should go say hi to your father, he's in the living room."

 

"Will do," AJ nodded walking out of the hallway towards the living room where indeed his father sat reading through what appeared to be case files.

"Bringing work home," AJ commented, "Some things never change."

Alex looked up from the file and set it aside when he saw AJ there. 

"AJ," he greeted, pushing his reading glasses on top of his head as he stood, "How have you been, son?"

"Good," AJ shrugged, "thought I'd stop by, hang out here for the evening.

"Of course," agreed Alex, "Care to take a look at these and give me your opinion?"

AJ had been subtly trying to look at his father's work and now he grinned sheepishly for having been caught doing so. 

"Sure," he said. 

 

Alex leaned forward and and passed AJ a section of the files, "Feel free to take a seat."

When AJ sat down on the couch, Maggie, who had been curled up on the floor near Alex's armchair, walked over and plopped herself down by AJ's feet.

"Hey you," AJ chuckled as Maggie glanced up at him before resting her head on his foot.

"Still my best coworker," Alex smiled at the small dog.

"I can see that," AJ said, scratching the top of her head and eliciting a pleased grumble.

Maggie made an attempt to paw at AJ's hand to prevent him from discontinuing his attention as he started read the paper work. He was deep in concentration when he heard a sarcastic voice. 

"Of course you're helping dad work. I swear, you're as bad as he is."

Liam had recently started high school and as such he had suddenly adopted a devil-may-care teenage delinquent persona. If a teenage delinquent still got top grades and never broke any rules.

"Hey little brother," AJ grinned at his youngest brother, "what's new with you?"

Liam shrugged apathetically, but AJ had enough experience reading his brother's face to see that he had something he wanted to talk about. So AJ waited. 

"Can I talk to you?" Liam asked finally, "Alone?"

"Sure," replied AJ, setting the papers aside and getting to his feet, "but if you're hoping for some advice on how to get girls, I have some bad news for you."

"Har-dee-har," Liam rolled his eyes dramatically.

Liam led the way back to his room. AJ would be lying if he said he wasn't slightly jealous that Liam had mostly grown up with his own room. Not that AJ regretted sharing with Pip and Jamie, but it would have been nice to have his own space every once in awhile.

Liam pushed the door open and AJ followed him inside, "So what did you want to talk about?" he asked.

"My school," Liam started, "has a GSA. You know, a Gay-Straight Alliance club. I went to the administration to petition that they change the name to something that's more inclusive to other on LGBTQIA spectrum and they said no!"

 

"Okay..." AJ furrowed his brow, "where are you going with this?"

 

"It's not that I don't like the fact that the school has this club," Liam said, "but it just seems so unfair that I would have to feel unwelcome in that club because I don't fall into one of their two categories."

AJ blinked, wondering if he had correctly interpreted the subtext in that statement. 

"Is that a hypothetical not belonging or..." AJ trailed off, waiting for his brother to fill in the gaps.

"Keep up," Liam huffed, "of course it's not hypothetical."

AJ stared at him and waited. He really wanted to hear the words come out of his brother's mouth and he would say nothing else until he did. 

"I'm not sure exactly where I fit," Liam said, his cheeks coloring in a way that showed he hadn't really talked about this out loud before, "bi or pan or whatever. But I know it doesn't fit into the gay or straight label!"

AJ did his best to keep his expression, it had become very clear why Liam had wanted to speak with him specifically, "Well that's okay."

"Yeah," Liam agreed, looking pleased.

Liam darted forward to give his brother a hug. AJ returned the squeeze. Their family was very opening, but coming out was still a deeply personal thing and he was glad that Liam had chosen him. 

After a moment, Liam stepped back and cleared his throat. 

"In any case," he said, "is there a legal precedent for me to sue the school for discrimination because they won't change the club name?"

 

AJ let out a sigh, he wasn't completely sure, "It would be something I'd need to look into."

 

"Thanks, you're the best," Liam told him. 

AJ knew he was saying it for more than one reason.


End file.
